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Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

I'm not high on Robinson. He's one of those guys who I see as having the dominant skill set for college and not for the pros. Also, Kansas players never pan out. Who is the best Jayhawk in the NBA since Paul Pierce? Nick Collison? Brandon Rush?

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

There was a local feel during predraft workouts held out at Bankers Life Fieldhouse today.Local products Alex Young (IUPUI) and Julian Mavunga (Brownsburg High School) were among the six players to workout for the Indiana Pacers today.“It’s a good opportunity to show the Pacers what I can do,” Young said. “I know they’ve seen me a lot, but it’s still good to come in here and show off my skills.”Young, who averaged 20.4 points last season at IUPUI, is a borderline draft pick.

Mavunga, who spent fours years at Miami (Ohio), likely won’t get drafted.“I’m just trying to show I can play and compete,” Mavunga said. “At the end of the day, it’s on you. When you get the opportunity like this to come in and work against other guys, it’s up to you.”Reggie Hamilton (Oakland University), Kyle Kuric (Louisville), Ricardo Ratliffe (Missouri) and Hollis Thompson (Georgetown) also worked out today.
The Pacers have the No. 26 pick in the June 28 draft.

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

For the record, I am very high on Thomas Robinson and Bradley Beal. Thomas Robinson is David West plus rebounding, and Bradley Beal is a healthy Eric Gordon with a step back in talent as of right now...

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

MIAMI -- David Stern is determined to stop the floppers, even if it takes until the next morning.

The NBA commissioner believes too many players are deceiving referees into calling fouls by falling down, or flopping. So he and the league's newly reformed competition committee met Monday for a discussion about how it can be prevented.

One option, Stern said, is a "postgame analysis" in which a player could be penalized if it was determined he flopped. The league retroactively upgrades or downgrades flagrant fouls after review, and along those lines he said that perhaps a player could receive a message from New York saying: "Greetings from the league office. You have been assigned flopper status."

"No, I'm joking, but something like that," Stern said. "That sort of lets people know that it's not enough to say 'it's all part of the game.' "The committee is made up of coaches Doc Rivers of Boston, Rick Carlisle of Dallas and Lionel Hollins of Memphis; owners Dan Gilbert of Cleveland and Joe Lacob of Golden State, and general managers Bryan Colangelo of Toronto, Sam Presti of Oklahoma City, Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers and Kevin O'Connor of Utah.

During a 6-hour meeting, they also discussed expanding instant replay for flagrant fouls and goaltending, decided the lottery system is the best one currently available, and seemed to favor leaving the away from the ball foul rule as is, so coaches could continue to intentionally foul notoriously bad free throw shooters.

Any rules changes they recommend would have to be approved by the league's Board of Governors, set for its next meeting in July.Stern hopes by then to have a policy to address flopping, which bothers him because he feels it tricks the referees. He said there's a "broad array of issues" to look at that can let players know the practice is to be discouraged.

"If you continue to do this, you may you have to suffer some consequences," he said. "What those exactly should be and what the progression is is to be decided, because ... we just want to put a stake in the ground that says this is not something that we want to be part of our game, without coming down with a sledgehammer but just doing it in a minimalist way to begin stamping it out. And I think there are ways we can do that and we'll have to wait and see exactly what we come up with."

Stern has talked of allowing replay on all flagrants. Referees currently can only look at the more severe flagrant-2 penalties to determine if they indeed warranted ejection or should be downgraded to flagrant-1s. He has said he is intrigued by the international goaltending rules, which allow a defensive player to knock the ball off the rim.

He's neutral when it comes to the away from the ball fouls, which led to Hack-a-Shaq and which the Thunder used while intentionally fouling San Antonio's Tiago Splitter in the Western Conference finals. On one hand, he feels bad for the player who is being embarrassed by his poor free throw shooting; on the other, he understands that maybe coaches should then take the player out.

The committee appears to be leaning toward the status quo.

"It's fair to say there was a strong sense that we shouldn't cut down on the toolbox that coaches have available to them, despite what may seem the unseemliness of the way it goes down," Stern said. "But that's just one of the things that you do if you want to win and it works."

He said the committee, formerly made up of the league's general managers, plans to reconvene in September.

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird and owner Herb Simon won't meet until next week to address Bird's future.The two had hoped to meet this week so that they could try to reach a new agreement on Bird remaining as president.Bird wants to talk to Simon about replacing current general manager David Morway with Kevin Pritchard, who is currently the team's director of player personnel.Bird likes Pritchard's basketball knowledge. Pritchard is a former general manager in Portland.

Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird and owner Herb Simon won't meet until next week to address Bird's future.The two had hoped to meet this week so that they could try to reach a new agreement on Bird remaining as president.Bird wants to talk to Simon about replacing current general manager David Morway with Kevin Pritchard, who is currently the team's director of player personnel.Bird likes Pritchard's basketball knowledge. Pritchard is a former general manager in Portland.

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

It would be nice if the meeting had already transpired. It should have been done and over with by now. A week b4 the draft is cutting it close if they can't get something worked out. I'm sure they will, but why wait until the last moment?

The New Orleans Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers are two teams that have been rumored to be interested in trading their late lottery picks in order to acquire young veteran player. ESPN's Chad Ford writes that the players in play for these picks include B-level talent such as Paul Millsap, Evan Turner, Eric Bledsoe and Darren Collison. This report is rather vague if it is sourced material, or just speculation.
According to Chad Ford

from ESPN.com:

If the Hornets are looking to trade Pick 10 for a young veteran, who are some of the potential targets?

Chad Ford: Darren Collison, Eric Bledsoe, Evan Turner I've heard a lot. Ditto for Paul Millsap of the Jazz. By the way, I'm told the Blazers are looking at the same group of players at 11 if they decide to trade the pick.

Who would the Pacers be looking at for 10 or 11 (I realize it's most likely just speculation)?

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

Who would the Pacers be looking at for 10 or 11 (I realize it's most likely just speculation)?

I'm guessing that at most....it's the Pacers offering DC for the #10 or #11 pick....but I'd easily rank Milsap at the top of that list if I had to choose one for either pick. Evan Turner, Bledsoe and DC IMHO has relatively the same trade value...they just bring different things to the table.

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

I'm guessing that at most....it's the Pacers offering DC for the #10 or #11 pick....but I'd easily rank Milsap at the top of that list if I had to choose one for either pick. Evan Turner, Bledsoe and DC IMHO has relatively the same trade value...they just bring different things to the table.

I totally agree. I would think that LAC would have to throw in some more pieces to get 10/11 from Bledsoe.

Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

At 10 or 11 I would have said 3 weeks ago that PJIII or Sullinger would have been completely a no brainer to try to get there, maybe they still are, but they've both fallen through the floor in the projections. I mean if you could flip DC for what you think is DWests or Grangers replacement in 3 years, isn't that just robbery.